Chace Crawford has revealed that one of his former Gossip Girl co-stars was in the running to play Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad.
The American actor, who appears in new Amazon series The Boys, claims that Penn Badgley was in the running to play the role opposite Bryan Cranston before it went to Aaron Paul.
"If you want an interesting story, Penn screen-tested for Jesse," he told The Independent in a new interview. "He didn't even test for Gossip Girl; they offered it to him – but I remember him telling me he screen-tested for Jesse."
He continued: "He would have been kind of a different choice, but right around the time of Gossip Girl was getting cast, he screen-tested but Aaron Paul got it instead."
It's hard to think of a version of Breaking Bad that doesn't star Paul, but Badgley would have made for an interesting selection. The actor, who played Dan Humphrey in teen series Gossip Girl, currently stars as the sinister Joe Goldberg in Netflix series You.
In the interview, Crawford reflected upon his time in Gossip Girl, stating that he'd be up for reuniting with the original stars, including Blake Lively and Ed Westwick, for a "grittier" film version.
Just last week, a rebooted 10-episode series was announced by HBO's new streaming service.
You can read the full interview with Crawford here. The Boys is available to stream on Amazon now.
